Data communications network for an aircraft

ABSTRACT

A method of providing current operation data for a plurality of data generating components connected to a data communications network. The network may include input units that generate data and subscribing units that require the generated data to function. The generated data may be formatted or processed in a manner so that it can be used by the subscribing units. The formatted and processed data may then be supplied to the subscribing units.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

For contemporary aircraft, an avionics ‘platform’ consists of a varietyof elements such as sensors, sensor data concentrators, a datacommunications network, radio frequency sensors and communicationequipment, computational elements, effectors, and graphical displays.These components must share information with each other over the datacommunications network.

Legacy incarnations of these platform elements are in the form ofindividual subsystem elements often referred to as “federated systems”.A federated system is an application-specific subsystem in aself-contained package having its own dedicated logic, processors, andinput/output interfaces. Multiple and separated federated systems relyon common subsets of data sources, but lack the sharing of processingresources and interfaces among federated systems.

Previous efforts to reduce the reliance on federated systems, resultedin the introduction of the ARINC 653 and ARINC 664 standards. ARINC 653(A653) is an operating system in which each application, e.g.,associated with a federated system function, is granted its own timeslice partition and its own memory space partition in which to execute.This enabled what were multiple federated system functions to be hostedon a common processor and to share a common interface and wiring to anavionics data network based on ARINC 664 part 7 (A664p7).

In these systems, data is sampled, published, and transmitted at ahigher frequency and an application executing in an ARINC 653 partitionis run more frequently in order to ensure that the results produced byan application have sufficiently lowinput-data-sample-time-to-processed-output delay. Both the frequency ofdata publication rate and the frequency of application execution tend tobe more frequent than would be necessary if data and its processing weresynchronized.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, the invention relates to a method of providingcurrent operation data for a plurality of data generating componentsconnected to a data communications network of an aircraft and sending atleast one data frame having an identifier and corresponding raw data,the method includes: generating a current value table (CVT) comprisingreserving in memory connected to the communications network, includingat least one circular buffer, a memory address allocation for eachidentifier and corresponding raw data; receiving a data frame over thenetwork from at least one of the data generating components; parsing thereceived data frame into the identifier and corresponding raw data;determine, by way of a software look up table, the reserved memoryaddress for the parsed identifier; updating the determined reservedmemory address with the parsed raw data by writing the parsed raw datato the reserved memory address; and repeating the included steps forsubsequent data frames for the data generating components whereby theCVT maintains the most up-to-date data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The described embodiments of the present invention are directed toembodiments of an avionics data communications network, having anavionics data server (ADS), and components for an aircraft, whichsupports the need to distribute any source of data values to anydestination on the aircraft. While possible, embodiments of thisinvention do not need to impose the requirement that all data paths ofthe aircraft must go through the data communications network as therewill be certain point-to-point flows, for example, for which there willbe no advantage to pass them through the ADS. However, at least most ofthe data flows which need conversion, interworking, processing,synchronization, traffic shaping, policing, multicasting, etc. canbenefit from the functionality that the ADS provides.

As shown schematically in FIG. 1, an aircraft 10 is shown having aplurality of remote input units (RIUs) 12, for instance various sensorsor instruments and at least one subscriber unit 14 electricallyconnected to a data communications network 16 for operation of theaircraft 10. Each RIU 12 may provide data, or data frames, to the datacommunications network 16, and each subscriber unit 14 may consume amessage based on at least some of the raw data. Subscriber units 14 may,for example, include additional avionics systems, processors, displays,or redundancy verification systems. The RIUs 12 and subscriber units 14may provide and consume data at different data transmission rates, whichare effectively managed by the data communications network. AdditionalRIUs 12 and/or subscriber units 14, or placement of the units 12, 14 areenvisioned. It will be understood that while one embodiment of theinvention is shown in an aircraft environment, the invention is not solimited and has general application to data communications networks innon-aircraft applications, such as other mobile applications andnon-mobile industrial, commercial, and residential applications.

FIG. 2 shows a high-level block diagram of the data communicationsnetwork, including the Avionics Data Server (ADS) 18. The ADS 18 maycomprise a plurality of physical RIUs 20 connected to a common ingressinterface 22; an ingress port scheduler 24; a frame descriptor manager(FDM) 25 having a descriptor look-up table (DLT) 26, a policer 27, anddescriptor multicast distributor (DMD) 29; a central data server (CDS)28; an egress parametric message scheduler (PMS) 30 having a parametricmessage constructor (PMC) 31; a plurality of physical subscriber units32 connected to a common egress interface 34; and a plurality of virtuallinks 36.

Each RIU 20 is connected to the common ingress interface 22 via one datacoupling 38 and at least one data queue 40, defining a physical ingressport 42. The data coupling 38 may have capabilities to receive a dataframe from a physical connector, and may, for instance, include physicalconnectors such as an Ethernet port, and/or a software or protocol layercompatibilities, such as Media Access Control (MAC) or internet protocol(IP) routing, or a serial interface. Collectively, the physical ingressports 42 define an ingress physical interface 44. Although a limitednumber of physical ingress ports 42 are shown, it is envisioned theremay be any number, with one working example including forty-eightingress ports 42, wherein the first sixteen ports 42 may be, forinstance, Ethernet ports 42, and the remaining thirty-two ports are forARINC 429 interfaces. An alternate number of ports are envisioned, aswell as alternate divisions of two or more interfaces. The ADS 18 iscapable of interfacing with a plurality of physical RIU 20 and virtuallink 36 data protocols, for example, Ethernet, IEEE 802.3, ARINC 664part 7 (A664p7), CAN bus, ARINC 429 (A429), ARINC 661, and other legacyprotocols, etc. It is envisioned interfacing protocols may or may nothave a physical interface, and may include, for instance, wirelesstechnology such as Bluetooth or WiFi.

The common ingress interface 22 may be further connected to at least onevirtual ingress port 46, wherein the port 46 provides at least some rawdata, via a data queue 40, to the interface 22. Collectively, thevirtual ingress ports 46 define an ingress virtual interface 48. Eachphysical and/or virtual ingress port 42, 46 is capable of providing atleast some raw data to the common ingress interface 22.

The ingress port scheduler 24 receives input from the common ingressinterface 22, provides output to the FDM 25 and the CDS 28, and mayfurther comprise a time of arrival (ToA) recorder 50 and ingress portconcentrator 52. The policer 27 may monitor and/or affect the operationof the FDM 25. The DMD 29 may provide an output connection to a set ofper-egress-port descriptor queues 43, which operate in a first-in,first-out (FIFO) configuration. The DMD 29 may write the same descriptorto more than one of the per-egress-port descriptor queues 43 if the samemessage is to be transmitted to more than one physical subscriber unit32. Each per-egress-port descriptor queue 43 is further connected toqueue fullness interface 70.

The CDS 28 comprises memory for storing at least one circular buffer 54,a current value table (CVT) 56, and a parametric message table 58. Forexample, the CDS 28 memory may include a hard disk drive, a solid statedrive, quad data rate (QDR) memory, or a plurality of memory elementsarranged for redundancy. In the illustrated embodiment, the CDS 28comprises three circular buffers 54, each defined by the data rate atwhich it operates, for example, a 10 megabit-per-second (Mbps) circularbuffer 60, 100 Mbps circular buffer 62, and a 1 gigabit-per-second(Gbps) circular buffer 64. In each circular buffer 54, the oldest storeddata is overwritten with the newest data arriving from an output byingress port scheduler 24.

Each physical subscriber unit 32 is connected to the common egressinterface 34 via one data couplings 38 and at least one data queue, suchas a set of per-egress-port data message queues 41, defining a physicalegress port 66. Collectively, the physical egress ports 66 define anegress physical interface 68. Each per-egress-port data message queue 41of each physical egress port 66 is further connected to the queuefullness interface 70. The common egress interface 34 may be furtherconnected to at least one virtual egress port 72, wherein the port 72receives a message, via a data queue 40, from the interface 34.Collectively, the virtual egress ports 72 define an egress virtualinterface 74. It is envisioned each physical egress port 66 may beassociated with one data message queue 41 but any number ofper-egress-port data descriptor queues 43, with the illustratedembodiment having, for example, one data queue 41 and four descriptorqueues 43 per physical egress port 66, 72.

The egress parametric message scheduler (PMS) 30 may further comprise anegress arbiter, for instance, a rules-based scheduler 76, which may usequeue fullness interface 70 to determine from which one of theper-egress-port descriptor queues 43 to receive a descriptor provided bythe DMD 29. That descriptor is used to read and verify a specified dataframe from CDS 28. If the frame is so verified, PMS 30 may furtherprovide an output from the CDS 28, through the common egress interface34, to the physical egress port 66 which is associated with theper-egress-port descriptor queue 43 from which the descriptor wasreceived.

The egress parametric message scheduler (PMS) 30 may further comprise aparametric message constructor (PMC) 31, which may use the contents of aParametric Message Table 58 and data values contained in CVT 56 and/orcircular buffer 54 (e.g., if it contains an A429 multiword message) tooriginate construction of messages for consumption by subscriber units32 and/or egress ports 66, 72.

The PMS 30, rules-based scheduler 76, and/or PMC 31 may, for instance,include an executable program running on a general purpose computer onthe network, or an executable program running on a specific purposecomputer. Alternatively, PMS 30, rules-based scheduler 76, and/or PMC 31may include a hard-coded functioning logic device. The rules-basedscheduler 76 may receive inputs from per-egress-port-descriptor queues43 and queue fullness interface 70 to enable PMS 30 to select and verifya message from CDS 28 to the common egress interface 34. Alternatively,the PMS 30 and/or PMC 31 may use the parametric message table 58 toselect which data values from CVT 56 and/or circular buffer 54 may beused to construct a message output to the common egress interface 34.Although the per-egress-port descriptor queues 43 are illustrated asseparate from the PMS 30, an embodiment is envisioned wherein the queues43 may be contained within the PMS 30 and/or the rules-based scheduler76.

The virtual links 36 may further comprise additional local or remotecomponents of the ADS 18, whereby a message may be transmitted from thevirtual egress interface 74, through at least one data queue 40 andvirtual link 36, and received by the ingress virtual interface 48.Example virtual links 36 shown include at least one distributedprocessors 78 capable of performing a processing or computationalfunction on the message, a graphics renderer 80 capable of providingcontent (e.g., using ARINC 661 widgets) for avionics displays, a virtualend system 82 for interfacing with legacy aircraft systems, network massstorage memory 84 for redundant storage, or a message loop-back port 86for transmitting a message from PMS 30 to one or more egress ports 68.It is envisioned that the virtual links 36 may be further identifiedusing a virtual link ID (VLid).

The ADS 18 operates to support switching functions to support the needto distribute any source of raw data values to any destination orsubscriber unit 32 on the aircraft 10. It is envisioned that embodimentsof the invention may not need to impose the requirement that all rawdata flows must go through the ADS 18 as there will be certainpoint-to-point flows, for example, for which there will be no advantageto pass them through the ADS 18. However, all raw data flows which mayrequire switching functions, for instance, conversion, interworking,processing, synchronization, traffic shaping, policing, multicasting,etc., may benefit from the functionality that the ADS 18 provides.Additionally, more than one ADS 18 may be provided on the same aircraft10 or data communications network 16 in order to provide additionalswitching capabilities, redundancy safety measures, data mirroring via astorage device or another ADS 18 for verification and validation, ordistributed processing.

It is envisioned that each physical egress port 66 may be configuredwith—multiple per-egress-port descriptor queues 43 to provide multiplepaths for descriptors to be consumed by parametric message scheduler 30,based on priority of the message as interpreted by the rules-basedarbiter 76. It is envisioned each physical egress port 66 may correspondto any number of per-egress-port descriptor queues 43, with theillustrated embodiment having, for example, four queues 43. It isfurther envisioned that a per-egress-port descriptor queue serves onlyone physical egress port 66 or virtual egress port 72.

Each descriptor queue 43 and each egress data queue 41 are configured totransmit a signal indicative of how full the queue 41, 43 is to thequeue fullness interface 70, which is used by the rules-based arbiter 76and parametric message scheduler 30 to select from which per-egress-portdescriptor queue 43 the next descriptor is to be received.

Before describing the operation of the ADS 18, a brief discussion of thedata used throughout the ADS 18 will aid in understanding the operationof the data communications network 16. Initially, an RIU 20 may providea data frame to the ADS 18, wherein the data frame has at least anidentifier and corresponding raw data. At least one of the ingressphysical interfaces 22 and/or the ingress port scheduler 24 parses thereceived data frame into an identifier, or a parsed descriptor, andparsed corresponding raw data. The parsed descriptor, which may befurther updated by the ADS 18, is used to identify and describe thepurpose of the raw data, for instance, where the data should betransmitted to or where the data is being transmitted from, while theparsed raw data contains the payload. The ADS 18 later uses thedescriptor to identify the location of the raw data, and may constructor calculate the descriptor and/or the raw data into operational data,or a message, for consumption by an egress port 66, 72.

In one example, the ADS 18 operations are capable of receiving a dataframe from an asynchronously connected RIU 20, storing the raw data inCDS 28 memory, such as the CVT 56 or circular buffer 54, forming amessage from the stored data frame, and sending the formed message to atleast one subscriber unit 32. Additionally, there may be a directloop-back capability which serves as a means for frames, constructed bythe Parametric Constructor 31, to appear at an ingress port for frameswitching. Individual portions of the ADS 18 and ADS 18 operation willbe described in detail.

Ingress Physical Interface Functions

First, data is provided to the common ingress interface 22 from the RIUs20 of one or more physical interface ports 42. The ingress physicalinterface 44 may include components, for instance, as part of the datacouplings 38, capable of converting data or analogue signals provided bya particular physical ingress port 42 into a data stream or data frame,which is stored in a FIFO ingress data queue 40. In this example, thedata couplings 38 may perform the following ingress functions: eliminatecorrupt words/frames/data; enable eliminating non-IP data frames (forinstance, payload type/length field not equal to 0×0800); time tag thetime of arrival of the first byte of data; and queue data frames pendingsubsequent transfer and processing. Some outputs that may be generatedas the data frame enters the ingress port 42, 46 queues 40 are: a portof arrival (PoA), to enforce that a data frame only enters on itsdesignated ingress port 42, 46; a time of arrival (ToA) of the firstword; a one-bit pulse for the ToA of a completed frame (for the ToArecorder 50 of ingress port scheduler 24; described below); start offrame and end of frame indicators for frame delineation when the frameis read; and a frame length in number of bytes.

Using the Ethernet paradigm for an external interface to an RIU 20, byway of example, the data coupling 38 for each physical ingress port 42resembles the receive section of a Media Access Controller (MAC), withancillary logic to generate, store and recover the above-namedparameters, connected to one or more queues 40, for instance, a dataFIFO queue 40 and a frame descriptor FIFO queue 40.

It is envisioned that the ingress ports consist of not just thoseassociated with external ingress physical interfaces 44, but internal oringress virtual interfaces 48 as well, such as those associated with theoutput of the virtual links 36, such as interworking (e.g., virtual endsystem 82, parametric message constructor 31), distributed processors 78and graphics renderer 80.

For sake of health monitoring, per-port statistics may be maintained bythe ingress physical interface 44 or data couplings 38. These mayinclude the number of frames received, number of frames discarded dueto, for example, cyclic redundancy check (CRC) errors, number of runt(<64 bytes) frames discarded, and/or a number of frames discarded thatexceed the maximum frame size allowed on the port. Likewise, statisticsmay be maintained by the policer 27 which indicate the number of framespassed or discarded that are associated with a particular flow indexprovided by input port scheduler 24 to FDM 25.

Ingress Scheduler

The ingress port scheduler 24 organizes the raw data received from theingress physical and/or virtual interfaces 44, 48 into a FIFO order,pending arrival of a completed data frame. In this sense, the switchingportion of the ADS 18 may be a store-and-forward design, so that largedata frames of various sizes can be stored contiguously in centralmemory, such as the CDS 28, after arriving at different ingress ports42, 46. It is envisioned the ADS 18 provides a master time which may ormay not be synchronized across various aircraft components, includingthe CDS 28, CVT 56, PMS 30, and/or the subscriber units 32, or multipleADSs 18 of the data communications network 16. The ingress portscheduler 24 may also optionally control frame descriptor management(FDM) functions, wherein, for instance, the data frame may be parsedinto separate portions including an identifier, or descriptor, and thecorresponding raw data.

Time of Arrival Recorder

The ingress Scheduler operation may also include the ToA recorder 50 andone or more ingress port concentrators 52. The ToA recorder 50determines which ingress port's 42, 46 data frame is to be stored next,based on the master time signal of the ADS 18. The ingress portconcentrator 52 funnels arriving data frames or A429 words to at leastone of two CDS 28 destinations: one of potentially many circular buffers54 (in the case of queuing-type data) or the CVT 56 in the case ofsampling-type data (described below).

For example, whenever a data frame or an A429 word completely arrives atits physical ingress port's 42 data queue 40, a one-bit pulse may besent to the ingress scheduler's 24 ToA recorder 50 to record the dataframe's time of completion. It is possible for several short raw dataframes to arrive on any given port 42, 46 while previously arrived dataframes are being transferred out of the data queues 40 of other ports42, 46. For this reason, it is envisioned the ToA recorder 50 may use,for example, just one bit per data frame per port 42, 46, but whichaccurately represents the relative time of completion combination on allports 42, 46. The bits, which collectively represent the completedarrival of a frame on any of the ports 42, 46 during a clock cycle, maybe organized into a time of arrival word (TAW).

Each time a data frame or A429 word completes its arrival at an ingressport 42, 46, it may toggle a line dedicated to that input port 42, 46and set a bit of the TAW. Likewise, any completed arrival during a clockcycle may cause the entire TAW to be written into the ToA recorder 50,organizing the arriving TAW values in a FIFO ordering. If there are nonew data frames or A429 word completions during a clock cycle, no TAW iswritten to ToA recorder 50. Alternatively, if data frames or A429 wordscomplete their arrival concurrently on multiple ports during the sameclock cycle, more than one bit of the TAW written into the ToA recorder50 may be set.

The ingress port concentrator 52 receives the oldest TAW word availableat the output of the ToA recorder 50 to determine which data frame orA429 word completed arrival first. The ingress port concentrator 52 thusacts as a port selector which determines which ingress port's 42, 46data frame is next processed and transferred to the CDS 28. It ispossible that frames or words completed arrival simultaneously ondifferent ports within the resolution of a clock cycle and the TAWreceived from the ToA recorder 50 will have multiple bits set. In thatcase, the ingress scheduler 24 will service all ports whose data framescompleted arrival simultaneously in, for example, a round-robin order,before the next TAW word is received from the output of ToA recorder 50.This operation may guarantee data-rate fairness for all ingress ports42, 46, regardless of their data arrival rates and/or data frame sizes.

Ingress Port Concentrators

There may be three ingress port concentrators 52 for the ingress portscheduler 24. For example, one ingress port concentrator 52 concentratesthe parsed Ethernet frames, or raw data, for writing into one or morecircular buffers 54 with their storage information and flow identifierprovided to DLT 26 and policer 27, which may result in a descriptorwritten into descriptor queues 43 by DMD 29 and serviced by rules-basedscheduler 76, when scheduled to do so by PMS 30.

A second concentrator 52 may concentrate Ethernet frames, raw dataand/or A429 words into the CVT 56, for later utilization by the PMS 30and/or PMC 31. A third concentrator 52 may concentrate raw data and/orA429 words (e.g., those bearing multiword messages) into one or morecircular buffers 54 organized as FIFOs in order to preserve the timeorder of samples of raw data and/or the order of A429 words. These arereferred to herein as A429 output queues.

Once a particular ingress port is selected for service by the ToArecorder 50, the ingress port concentrator 52 coordinates the transferof parsed raw data from the selected ingress port 42, 46 to the at leastone of the CVT 56 or circular buffers 54 of the CDS 28 and/or the FDM25.

Frame Descriptor Manager

The frame header, frame length, ToA and PoA generated by the ingressphysical interface 44 functions are used by FDM 25 to create adescriptor for a data frame and broadcast that descriptor to the set ofper-egress-port descriptor queues 43. The FDM 25 may also receive aHead-of-Frame pointer (HOFpointer, for identifying the address of theparsed data) and Time of Frame Storage (ToFS, for identifying how longthe parsed data may be acceptably stored) of each Ethernet Frame or A429word written to the CDS 28. There are two different routing paths usedby DMD 29 for descriptor distribution, one for Ethernet frames and onefor A429 data words. Additionally, there is a different descriptor foreach of these paths.

The Frame Descriptor Manager FDM consists of a data path look up table(DLT) 26, policer 27, and the Descriptor Multicast Distributor (DMD) 29which enables the same descriptor to be written to multipleper-egress-port descriptor queues 43. The DMD 29 is controlled by acollection of bits output by the DLT 26 which identify to whichper-egress-port descriptor queues 43 a descriptor is to be written.

Ingress Look-Up Table

The ingress look-up table may be incorporated into the ingress portscheduler 24, and used to identify data flows and assign a unique indexto each flow originating on one of the ingress ports 42, 46. This indexserves as a flow identifier for a variety of data path storage andcontrol functions. For example, the index serves as a key for the DLT 26to retrieve policing parameters and routing bits which indicate intowhich queues 43 the DMD 29 may store the frame descriptor. The index isalso used to retrieve an address for where to store frame data in CDS28, for example, it may be used to retrieve and store the latest offsetaddress of circular buffer 54. The ingress Look-up Table may include arandom access memory, hashing logic and memory, or a content addressablememory (CAM), whose output, the flow index or key, is determined by portnumber and selected bits of the received data frame. For example, on aper-physical-Ethernet-port basis, a configuration option may be providedto indicate which bits of the UDP/IP/MAC header identify a type of dataflow. Alternatively, an ARINC 429 data flow may be identified by theincoming ARINC 429 physical port number concatenated with the 8-bitlabel of the ARINC 429 word.

This flow index may also provide a failsafe protection againstimpersonation or data corruption. For example, the DLT 26 output maycontain a field which indicates the expected port of arrival (EPoA) fora frame. A check may be made against the actual port number on whichthat frame arrived, as reported by the ingress physical interface 44. Ifthey do not match, the frame may be discarded.

For ARINC 429 interfaces, the A429 tag and port number are concatenatedand used to access a separate lookup table whose output may be the flowindex.

Using the flow index, the starting location and the frame length isprovided for CDS 28 writing functionality so that the contents of theraw data frame may be written, starting at the correct base address forthe proper number of CDS 28 locations.

The flow identifier addresses a routing, policing, and storageparameters table stored in the DLT 26. The output bit fields of this DLT26 may have different interpretations, depending on the data source andwhere it is to be stored. Ethernet frames can be stored in a circularbuffer 54 or the CVT 56 region of CDS 28. A429 data words can be storedin the CVT 56 or sent directly to one of 48 egress A429 queues, or both.A429 multiword messages may not be stored in CVT 56 unless thedestination subscriber unit 32 has a method to prevent temporal aliasingof back-to-back A429 messages or filtering duplicated words belonging tothe same A429 message.

In one example, the DLT 26 output which is selected by the flow indexmay include any combination of: CDS 28 Buffer Base Address plus one bitto indicate whether this base address refers to a CVT 56 location; aCircular Buffer 54 ID; Circular Buffer 54 Size; a virtual link (VL; e.g.virtual egress port 72) account identifier (VLacctID); an expected PoA(EPoA), to enforce that data only enters on its designated ingress port;a 1-bit field which indicates whether this an ARINC 429 word descriptor;a port mask bit vector, which indicates which egress ports 66, 72receive the frame; a bit field, which indicates the priority of theper-egress-port descriptor queue 41 into which the descriptor is to bewritten; A664p7 bandwidth allocation gap (BAG) for frame-based policing;a policing discard bit and a policing bypass bit; and a jitter tolerance(JitterT) for frame-based policing a maximum frame length (Smax) or CVT56 frame length depending on value of the CVT location bit mentionedabove.

The CDS 28 write control functionality supports two types of writeoperations: a CVT 56 write operation and a circular buffer 54 writeoperation. The DLT 26 output has a CVT location bit to indicate if thevalue in the base address field is a CVT 56 location (for instance, ifthe CVT location bit=1). For any given flow index which indicates a CVT56 write operation, the frames written into CVT 56 should always be ofthe same size. The CVT 56 bit also dictates whether the value in theSmax field is the fixed length of the CVT 56 frame or the maximum framesize (Smax) of a variable-length frame, which is to be enforced bypolicer 27 in case of a non-CVT 56 frame. For a CVT 56 frame, if theframe size calculated by the physical interface function does notexactly match the value in the Smax field, the CVT 56 frame may bediscarded. Likewise, for a non-CVT-56 frame, if the frame size isgreater than Smax, the frame may be discarded.

In the case of a CVT 56 write operation, the location and length of theframe is predetermined or static. The values in the most recentlyreceived frame simply overwrite the values in the previous receivedframe. The output of the DLT 26 directly provides the base address andlength of the frame to be written into CVT 56. Whether data is writteninto CVT 56 memory is determined or policed by its PoA, i.e., whetherthe flow index determined by the ingress look-up table of the ingressport scheduler 24 is allowed to arrive on a given physical ingress port42. An unauthorized flow on a physical ingress port 42 may not beallowed to corrupt the CVT 56 memory by preventing its being written tothe CVT 56. Furthermore, as stated above, if the frame length computedby the ingress physical interface 44 does not match the Smax field, theframe may be discarded.

Note that it is possible to mirror Ethernet frames containing samplingport data that are written in CVT 56 so other ADSs 18 may store ormirror the same data. This mirroring may be accomplished by, forinstance, providing a message to a physical egress port 66 connected toanother ADS 18. Alternatively, data mirroring may be accomplished usinga centralized data storage device, which for instance, may be accessibleto all ADSs 18 as a virtual ingress or egress port 46, 72. One exampleof this is shown as the network mass storage 84 virtual link 36. It isalso possible to store A429 words in a CVT 56 location and write them toone or more of the A429 output queues 41. An A429 word arriving on oneof the ingress A429 links, however, cannot go out an Ethernet portunless it is first packed into an Ethernet frame using the PMC 31(described below).

If the DLT 26 output indicates that the write operation is a circularbuffer 54 write operation (for instance, if the CVT location bit=0,indicating a non-CVT 56 frame), then the frame may be written to thenext available circular buffer 54 memory location, as determined by, forexample, a circular base address, obtained from a field of the DLT 26output, and a circular buffer offset table, maintained by ingress portscheduler 24. The base address and offset address may be used to trackthe next location to be written within the circular buffer 54.

Each circular buffer's 54 base address is determined by the memory baseaddress field of the DLT 26 output. Another field of the DLT26 outputindicates the circular buffer size. The address of any data word writteninto the circular buffer 54 is the sum of the circular buffer 54 baseaddress and the circular buffer offset. The circular buffer offset isincremented modulo the circular buffer 54 size after each word writtenwhile the circular buffer base address remains fixed. After the lastword of a data frame or an A429 word is written into circular buffer 54,the offset address of the next location is recorded in the locationwithin the circular buffer offset table indicated by the flow index andis made available as the starting offset of the next frame written intothe same circular buffer 54.

While embodiments of the invention are not restricted, the illustratedembodiment, may have up to 256 circular buffers 8K deep. By way ofexample, this may allow for a circular buffer 54 to be created for eachphysical ingress and/or egress port 42, 66. As an alternate example, acircular buffer 54 may be created for every flow index. As yet anotherexample, each circular buffer 54 may represent a collection of virtualoutput ports or virtual trunks. A “trunk” is associated with an egressset of virtual ports. These virtual ports can be mapped onto any set ofphysical egress ports 66 or virtual output port 72. For example, thesame ARINC 653 (A653) avionics application may reside on multiple linereplaceable units (LRUs) for availability reasons, for example, anapplication which processes air data. These may be connected todifferent physical egress ports 66 of the ADS 18. But, all of theinstances of the application may be configured to form a single trunkgroup so that they share the same circular buffer 54 to completelyisolate its data and bandwidth requirements from other A653applications. Thus, this level of granularity enables a circular buffer54 to be allocated per (distributed) A653 application.

Each time data is written into a circular buffer 54, the DescriptorMulticast Distribution function replicates a descriptor, which indicatesthe location of storage of the associated data frame in the buffer 54.Additionally, the rules-based-scheduler 76 and/or the PMS 30 may operatean Egress Scheduling Function which ensures that each physical egressport 66 receives a copy of the frame if it was provisioned to do so.

In the illustrated configuration, just three circular buffers 54 areused. These are allocated by associating physical egress ports 55 orsubscriber units 32 having the same data rates with a common circularbuffer 54. This provides the most efficient (shared memory) utilizationof the central buffer for A664p7 queuing-type data frames. In thisconfiguration, all 10 Mbps physical egress ports 66 may form one trunkgroup (10 Mbps circular buffer 60), all 100 Mbps physical egress ports66 may form another trunk group (100 Mbps circular buffer 62), and all1000 Mbps (1 Gbps) physical egress ports may form a trunk group (1 Gbpscircular buffer 64). Though there are three circular buffers 60, 62, 64and though a data frame may be bound for physical egress ports 66 havingdifferent data rates, the CDS 28 will only store one copy of a frame.The circular buffer 60, 62, 64 that a frame is written to corresponds tothe data rate of the slowest physical egress port 66 to which that frameis to be replicated. For sake of simplicity, the remainder of thisdocument will assume that there is a circular buffer 54 per set ofphysical egress ports 66 having the same egress data rate: 10 Mbps 60,100 Mbps 62, or 1 Gbps 64.

Policing Function

The Policing functions are performed by a policer 27 which may be aspecific purpose hardware logic pipeline in FDM 29 controlled by a statemachine. The policer 27 functionality depends on whether the incomingdata is an A429 data word or an Ethernet frame. The policer 27 makes adecision which determines whether an Ethernet frame descriptor isallowed to be passed onto the Descriptor Multicast Distributor 29 andwhether the incoming data is allowed to be stored in either the CVT 56or a circular buffer 54 region of the CDS 28. By definition, an ARINC429 frame produces no Ethernet frame descriptor for the DescriptorMulticast Distributor 29. In this instance, the ingress port scheduler24 may provide a separate descriptor for a separate data path whichbypasses the CDS 28. In another instance, the policer 27 may determinewhether an A429 data word may be stored in CVT 56.

For data frames provisioned to be stored in CVT 56, if the frame lengthis not equal to the provisioned frame length, the frame is discarded. NoBAG or jitter tolerance policing need to be enforced.

For data frames provisioned to be stored in a circular buffer 54 andpoliced, the policer 27 performs a secondary lookup using the VLacctIDof the DLT 26 to determine the time of arrival of a previous framehaving that VLacctID to enforce BAG and jitter tolerance constraints. Ifthe EPoA of the frame does not match the PoA or the Frame Length exceedsthe maximum frame length provisioned for the virtual link (VL), Smax, orthere is a BAG/jitter violation, the policer 27 may disable themulticast distribution of the current frame descriptor and preempt thewriting of the frame into the CDS 28.

Frame-based BAG and jitter tolerance policing in the policer 27 may beused to ensure that the maximum aggregate rate of data entering acircular buffer 54 is below that needed to ensure the minimum requiredtime-to-live for the slowest (possibly virtual) port receiving data outof that buffer. Frame-based BAG and jitter tolerance policing may alsobe used to ensure that no egress port 66, 72 in the data communicationsnetwork 16 exceeds its bandwidth and latency budget. If the policer 27determines that the configured maximum data rate for a given VLacctIDhas been exceeded, i.e., that the configured BAG or jitter tolerance isnot met, it may prevent a descriptor from being written to theper-egress-port descriptor queues 43 and thereby prevent a frame frombeing transmitted to physical subscriber units 32.

By way of example, the policer 27 may use six values obtained from DLT26: control bits (Ctrl), VLacctID, expected port of arrival (EPoA), andthe maximum frame size (Smax), bandwidth allocation gap (BAG), andjitter tolerance (JitterT) to determine whether an Ethernet framedescriptor is allowed to be passed onto the Descriptor MulticastDistribution function and whether the incoming data is allowed to bestored in the CDS 28. A664p7 allows multiple virtual links (VLs) tobelong to the same VL account, i.e., to have the same VLacctID, and,thereby, to be jointly policed using the Smax, BAG and JitterTconfigured for that VLacctID. The policer 27 obtains the actual port ofarrival (PoA), time of arrival (ToA), current time (T) and a framearrived indication from the ingress scheduler 24, which includes a timemanager that keeps track of current time T.

Descriptor Multicast Distribution

The Descriptor Multicast Distributor (DMD) 29 uses a collection of PortMask bits output by DLT 26 to determine which set of per-egress-portdescriptor queues 43 are to be written with a copy of the framedescriptor. One copy of the descriptor is written for each port 66, 72that is to receive a copy of a frame which is to be read out of acircular buffer 54 by PMS 30. When the PMS 30 schedules the operation ofthe rules-based scheduler 76 for a particular egress port 66, it selectsa per-egress-port descriptor queue 43 whose output may be used to read aframe out of CDS 28 and transmit it to the physical egress port 66. Itmay be noted that Ethernet frames and A429 data words stored in CVT 56do not rely on the DMD, as their distribution is controlled by the PMS30 and PMC 31 (described below).

The descriptor output by the DMD 29 for a switched data frame mayinclude the location of the first word of the frame (HOFpointer), timeof frame storage (ToFS), the frame length, priority (P), and Port Mask.Using the Port Mask and Priority that DMD 29 received from the DLT 26,the DMD 29 produces a bit per egress port priority to indicate whichper-egress-port descriptor queues 43 are to accept a copy of theswitched data frame descriptor and the priority of the queue 43 intowhich that descriptor is to be placed. This mechanism may be used, forexample, to ensure that a copy of each parametric data frame notreceived from an ADS 18 is mirrored to another ADS 18. Conversely, if aparametric data frame is received from another ADS 18, it may be storedin the local CVT 56 but not redistributed to other ADSs 18 by virtue ofsetting each Port Mask bit value corresponding to an ADS-connectedegress port to zero (i.e. by failing to identify an egress port 66, 72).By setting each Port Mask bit value corresponding to an ADS-connectedegress port to zero, the message may be prevented from propagating amongmultiple ADSs 18 indefinitely, which may lead to bandwidth overload onthe data communications network 16.

Frames bearing parametric data, (e.g., an Ethernet frame with A/Dvalues, ARINC 429 words, the value of discrete bit(s), etc.) may bestored in dedicated, predetermined locations within the CVT 56 region ofthe CDS 28. On a typical aircraft, there may be 2 to 4 ADSs 18, whichinclude a mechanism for providing each ADS 18 the ability to mirror thecontent of the other ADS 18 within the airframe. A descriptor for eachparametric frame written into CVT 56 (but not received from another ADS18) may be replicated onto the highest priority per-egress-portdescriptor queue 43 of each egress port 66, 72 connected to another ADS18. The service discipline of the rules based scheduler 76 will ensurethat any companion ADSs 18 receive a copy of the most recent frame, asdescribed below.

Central Data Server Write Control Functions

Concurrent with the DMD 29, if the policer 27 passes a frame bound forthe CDS 28, it is stored in the circular buffer 54 or CVT 56. The inputsto the CDS 28 Write Control Function may include the Time of FrameStorage (ToFS), frame length from the Ingress Physical Interface 44Function, plus a circular buffer 54 or CVT 56 memory location from theingress port scheduler 24 and DLT 26. The circular buffer 54 or CVT 56memory location becomes the initial value of the address counter andbecomes the head of frame pointer (HOFpointer) provided to the DMD 29 tobe included in the frame's descriptor. The ToFS, used for frameverification on readout, may be stored as the first word belonging tothe frame in CDS 28 memory and all subsequent frame data words continueto be written one at a time, for example, as sixty-four data bits plusECC, with the address counter incremented after each write. The WriteController compares the number of byte writes performed with the framelength obtained from the ingress physical interface 44. This continuesuntil the last word is written. The last word written may not be acomplete 64-bit word, in which instance the last word may be padded to64 information bits along with a valid ECC.

As illustrated, the CDS 28 Write Control Function may be configured forthree different circular buffers 60, 62, 64 dedicated to store framesbound for 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or 1 Gbps egress ports 66, 72,respectively. Only one copy of a frame is ever stored while multiplecopies of the descriptor referencing the frame may be multicast toper-egress-port descriptor queues 43. The circular buffer 60, 62, 64 inwhich a frame may be stored depends on the slowest egress port 66, 72 towhich that frame is to be copied/multicast. Successive frames stored ineach of these circular buffers 60, 62, 64 are stored contiguously withinthe buffer 60, 62, 64, with oldest frame's words being overwritten bythe newest frames. When data is written to a circular buffer 60, 62, 64,the length of the frame is determined by the number of bytes counted forthat frame by the physical ingress interface 44 function (e.g.FrameLength input). In a properly provisioned deterministic system, itis envisioned that a premature over-write of a frame in the circularbuffer 60, 62, 64, whose multicasting was not completed to all of itsegress ports 66, 72, should never occur. Nonetheless, an overwrite maybe easily detected by a mismatch of the 64-bit time stamp ToFS, whichwas the first word written at the head of the frame into CDS 28, withthe ToFS value included in the descriptor written into queues 43 by DMD29. In the instance of a mismatch, the frame may be discarded.Additional checks may be performed to verify that the descriptor used toread a frame out of CDS 28 is not reading a location overwritten byanother frame. For example, by including additional frame header bits inthe descriptor written into queues 43 and stored with the data frame inCDS 28, for example, the destination MAC address may be checked.

A bit out of the DLT 26 indicates whether the parsed data from the dataframe is being written into a static CVT 56 memory location, which isreserved for sampling-type data, or a circular buffer 60, 62, 64. Whenthe CVT 56 location bit is set to, for example, one, the CDS 28 baseaddress indicates a CVT 56 location, and the Smax/FrameSize value isinterpreted as the preconfigured frame size that is to be storedstarting at that Base Address. In this example, the frame length isfixed and the policing functions of the ingress port scheduler 24 willnot allow the parsed data to be written unless the frame lengthindicated by the ingress interface function exactly matches the framelength indicated by the ILUT. This may prevent potential inter-framealiasing of data within the CVT 56 in case of a received frame sizeerror. The Base address is loaded as a preset into an address counterand the CDS 28 is written until the frame size indicated by theSmax/FrameSize value read out of the DLT 26 is reached.

To protect against stale values stored in CVT 56, parametric Ethernetframes stored in CVT 56 are appended with a 64-bit time value, which isstored following the last word of the parsed data frame in CVT 56. Theseparametric data frames, in addition to being stored in the CVT 56, aremirrored to other ADSs 18. Consequently, it may be required thatphysical ingress ports 42 that are connected to other ADSs 18 bepreemptively identified so that if the parametric data frame did notarrive from another ADS 18, a copy of the descriptor may be multicast tothe highest priority per-egress-port descriptor queue 43 of a physicalegress ports 66 connected to other ADSs 18. Stated another way, if moreup-to-date data frame arrives at an ADS 18 from a non-ADS source (suchas an RIU 20), a copy of that descriptor may be multicast to the highestpriority queue of each physical egress port 66 such that the data frameis likely to be mirrored by additional ADSs 18 as quickly as possible.Conversely, if the data frame arrived from another ADS 18, the Port Maskbits in the Descriptor Multicast may be cleared to ensure that thedescriptor is not re-distributed to any physical egress port 66 boundfor an ADS 18 to prevent an endless replication of the same data in aninfinite loop.

ARINC 429 data frames not belonging to a multiword message may bewritten in CVT 56 for packing into parametric messages by the PMC 31.ARINC 429 specifies a 32-bit data word, yet each CVT 56 location in theCDS 28 is a 64-bit word plus 8 bits of ECC. In order to protect againststale values of A429 words in the CVT 56, each A429 word is time-taggedwith the 32 MSBs of time (the LSB being 216 microseconds). Thus, eachA429 word stored in CVT 56 has 32 bits of time as the MSBs and the32-bit A429 word as the LSBs.

Central Data Sever Memory

CDS 28 may, for example, use quad data rate (QDR) memories which areshallow compared to double data rate memory (DDR). Like DDR, they aresynchronous and can be ECC protected, but most provide concurrent readand write access, having an independent DDR read/write data port and aDDR read address port. These memories were specifically designed fordata switching applications. In the ADS 18, to meet throughput targets,the CDS 28 memories may be clocked at, for example, 250 MHz. Forexample, a QDR having dual 38-bit wide DDR data ports has enoughbandwidth to support 16 Gbps of full duplex data. Alternative memoryspeeds are envisioned based on data requirement or throughput needs.

Although the CDS 28 may be organized with up to 256 circular buffers 54,the illustrated CDS 28 is organized as three circular buffers 60, 62, 64plus a CVT 56. Each circular buffer 60, 62, 64 is reserved for datastorage, while the CVT 56 holds parsed parametric data, headers, andaddress lists that will be used to construct custom messages by the ADS18 as described below.

In case there are 3 circular buffers, for 1 Gbps, 100 Mbps, and 10 Mbpsdata storage per our example, which circular buffer a frame is placedinto depends on the slowest port to which a frame is multicast. For anyset of ports grouped by the same egress rate, the CDS 28 must haveenough storage at the aggregate data rate of the ports (i.e. 10 Mbps,100 Mbps, 1 Gbps) to accommodate the time it takes to drain 512 framesat that rate. For example, the CDS 28 may provide 2 Mbytes of storagefor the CVT 56 while allowing for a flexible allocation for the size ofthe circular buffer 60, 62, 64 dedicated to each of the egress datarates, which may be further adjusted according to the number of circularbuffers 54, how many ingress or egress ports 42, 46, 66, 72 areconfigured at that rate, the desired parsed data frame retention time,and the requisite time to live of the frames contained within thatbuffer.

By way of example, the default allocation may be 24 Mbytes per circularbuffer 60, 62, 64. For each circular buffer 60, 62, 64 the storage timemay be 8*24M/(PortSpeed*number of ports). For example, a 24 Mbytecircular buffer provides a storage time of more than 20 seconds dividedby the number of 10 Mbps ingress ports 42, 46 feeding the buffer, 2seconds divided by the number of 100 Mbps ports 42, 46, or 0.2 secondsdivided by the number of 1 Gbps ports 42, 46. The size of each circularbuffer may be configurable, as appropriate. Any unused line rate at anyingress or egress port 42, 46, 66, 72 provides residual storage time forall ports sharing that buffer.

For frame switching, a circular buffer 60, 62, 64 may obviate having toestablish fixed block sizes for parsed data frames and having to keeptrack of the unoccupied buffer allocations, which would otherwise exposethe entire ADS 18 to memory leakage due to single event upsets (SEUs).SEUs are thought to be caused by subatomic particles, such as neutrons,whose frequency of occurrence increases with altitude, and which cancorrupt values stored in memory and even logic. In case of circularbuffer overflow, the newest data overwrites the old. All FIFO queues 40in the ADS 18 may also use the circular buffer 54 paradigm. In this way,any SEU that corrupts the read and write pointers of the circularbuffers 60, 62, 64 are guaranteed to be corrected within the amount oftime that it takes to completely overwrite the buffer 60, 62, 64.

Egress Scheduling

The Egress Scheduling function of the PMS 30 determines which data isread out of the CDS 28 and which egress port 66, 72 receives it. Theegress scheduling functionality is determined by four major functionalcomponents: the per-egress-port descriptor queues 43, the PMS 30, theparametric message constructor 31, and an egress arbiter, such as therules-based scheduler 76. The rules-based scheduler 76 maintains andoperates according to the four prioritized descriptor queues 43 for eachegress port 66, 72. Each queue 43 may have enough capacity to hold 512descriptors. The descriptors in the per-egress-port descriptor queues 43were written using a broadcast bus by the descriptor multicastdistributor 29. Alternatively, the PMS 30 may maintain a schedule whichindicates which egress port 66, 72 the rules-based scheduler 76 shouldservice next or which message descriptor the PMC 31 should use to accessthe parametric message table 58 to originate a constructed message usingdata read from the CVT 56 and/or from the A429 output queues.

Rules-Based Scheduling

The rules-based scheduler 76 operates as a user-configurable componentwithin the PMS 30. The PMS 30, allows each egress port 66, 72 access tothe rules-based scheduler 76 which is used to select a descriptor fromits four priority queues 43 if one is available. This descriptor may beused to provide read access to the CDS 28. The PMS 30, for example, maygrant each egress port 66, 72 access to the rules-based scheduler 76 ina round robin fashion, strictly timed schedule, or a predeterminedalgorithm. Other servicing fashions are envisioned, for instance, aweighted schedule taking into account granting additional or prioritizedaccess based on the criticality of the egress port 66, 72. In regards togranting access to the CDS 28, the PMC 31 may be considered as anotheregress port 66, 72 that is granted guaranteed bandwidth access to theCDS 28 with, for instance, a maximum guaranteed bandwidth of 1 Gbps andmaximum guaranteed latency between each access of less than 66microseconds. The rules-based scheduler 76 provides arbitration todetermine which priority queue's 43 descriptor is read during eachport's 66, 72 access opportunity. That descriptor is then used to readand transmit a copy of a frame obtained from CDS 28 to one egress port66, 72.

The rules-based scheduler 76 may accept as input a set of fullnessthreshold bits or values from each per-egress-port descriptor queue 43,as well as a queue fullness indication from each egress physical portqueue 41 via the queue fullness interface 70, wherein a threshold bitmay be, for instance, set to one when the fullness of queue 43 exceeds aconfigured threshold and another threshold bit set to one whenever thequeue 41 is too full to accept a frame. Collectively, the bits containedin the queue fullness interface 70 represent the fullness of themultiple queues 41, 43 per egress port 66, 72. If a per-egress-portdescriptor queue 43 is too full, the rules-based scheduler 76 may modifythe service methodology on a per-queue 43 priority basis or if queue 41is too full, sending additional frames to queue 41 may be temporarilysuspended. For instance, while servicing an egress port 66, 72, if therules-based scheduler 76 determines one or more of that port's 66, 72per-egress-port descriptor queues 43 are too full based on the receivedfullness thresholds, the scheduler 76 may decide to service the fullqueues 43 first. In another instance, while servicing an egress port 66,72, if the rules-based scheduler 76 determines egress-port queue 41 istoo full to accept another frame, the scheduler 76 may decide to preemptservicing that port 66, 72 until the queue 41 can accept another frame.In yet another instance, if there are no descriptors to serve in anyper-egress-port descriptor queues 43 for an egress port 66, 72 beingserviced, the rules-based scheduler 76 may switch control access toservice the next egress port 66, 72 in round-robin-type (or alternative)fashion.

As previously described, there are four per-egress-port descriptorqueues 43 for each egress port 66, 72, which are prioritized. Whichqueue 43 gets to have its descriptor served depends on the fullness ofeach of the four descriptor queues 43. The fullness of each queue 43,for instance, may be measured by seven threshold levels, plus an emptyflag. In this example, the seven threshold levels may indicate a varyinglevel of “fullness.” Using priority encoder logic, the seven thresholdsand the empty flag may be converted into a 3-bit value, which determineswhich per-egress-port descriptor queue 43 will have a descriptorserviced (i.e. read data out of the CDS 28) by the PMS 30. These 12bits, plus the output of a 4-bit counter may be used to address, forexample, a 16K×3 lookup table in which the service rules of therules-based scheduler 76 are stored. Alternatively, the rules of therules-based scheduler 76 may be for instance, an algorithm fordetermining the service rules. The purpose of having a 4-bit counter foreach port as an input into this lookup table is to avoid the theoreticalpossibility of having a static threshold combination causing the samequeue to be serviced for an indeterminate period of time. It is a way toguarantee a lower bound on the rate of service given to each priority.

After the selected descriptor is read out of the selectedper-egress-port descriptor queue 43 based on the rules-based scheduler76 priority, the complete frame is readout of CDS 28 and transmitted toport 41 before the next egress port 66, 72 is allowed to have adescriptor serviced by scheduler 76 and granted an opportunity toreceive a frame from the CDS 28. For switched data frames, during thereadout process, the ToFS of the descriptor may be compared with that ofthe stored frame. If they disagree, the frame may be discarded. Eachegress Ethernet port may additionally have a programmable maximum age(MaxAge), and if the difference of the ToFS and the present value of thetime counter in the input port scheduler 24 Write Control function isgreater than the MaxAge parameter, the frame may be discarded.Otherwise, the frame is read out of the CDS 28 by the PMS 30, andtransferred to its egress port 66, 72, and transmitted to the subscriberunit 32 or virtual link 36.

Parametric Message Scheduler

The parametric message scheduler (PMS) 30 operates to schedule whichmessage is sent to which egress port 66, 72. The PMS 30 determines whichegress port is serviced next by the rules-based scheduler 76, forexample in a round-robin fashion, and using the descriptor received fromthe per-egress-port queue 43 selected by the rules-based-scheduler 76, acomplete data frame is read from circular buffer 54 in CDS 28. This readframe is transmitted to the egress port 66, 72 being serviced using thecommon egress interface 34.

The PMS 30 may schedule operation of the PMC 31 as if it were an egressport and controls which messages are constructed by the PMC 31 byhanding it a descriptor for the message to be constructed. Thedescriptor received by PMC 31 references a list of entries in theParametric Message Table 58, which detail what data from the CVT 56 orA429 output queues are to be placed into the frame being constructed.For example, the PMS 30 may provide the PMC 31 the address to a list ofaddresses and the list length. The addresses in the list are locationsfor data contained in CVT 56 or A429 output queues that is to be placedinto the data frame to be constructed.

The construction of parametric data frames may be strictly scheduled. Byway of example, the scheduling of up to 4096 frame constructions may besupported with a scheduled data frame departure resolution of 500microseconds. There may be a table of counter values representing timeincrements of 500 microseconds, a table of counter thresholds and atable of message descriptors, all of which are referenced by the entriesof a descriptor table address counter (DTAC). The descriptor format fora data frame to be constructed is further described below. Each entry ofthe counter value table, counter threshold table and descriptor table isassociated with an instance of a data frame to be constructed.

The scheduling of message construction proceeds as follows: The DTACscans the complete table of 4096 count values. Each count value isincremented and compared to its maximum count threshold, obtained from atable of maximum count thresholds. If the count is less than itsthreshold, the incremented value is simply written back into the tableof count values and message construction may not be triggered. However,if the count is greater or equal to the maximum value preset for themessage, the count value written back is zero and the value of thecontents of the descriptor table entry referenced by DTAC, which may bethe descriptor for the custom message to be transmitted, is passed tothe PMC 31 to initiate the message construction function.

In this example, if there are fewer than 4096 messages to beconstructed, there will be unused descriptor entries in the descriptortable which may never cause message construction to occur. In theinstance where it is desirable to disable a particular descriptorlocation entry, the corresponding maximum count table entry may be setto a value that cannot be reached, i.e., 4096, because of aninsufficient number of bits (i.e., 11) for the count value. In thisexample, since the PMS 30 is capable of scheduling of up to 4096messages every 500 microseconds, the PMS 30 will not likely be alimiting factor in developing custom messages for the ADS 18.Alternatively, the schedule resolution for the construction of anymessage may be in increments of 500 microseconds.

Parametric Message Construction Function

When the PMS 30 determines that message construction is scheduled, itpasses the descriptor together with a descriptor available indication tothe PMC 31 function. The descriptor contains identifying informationsuch that the PMC 31 may determine whether the data source for theEthernet/A664p7 frame is from one of the A429 queues 40 and/or whetherit is data which is to be scatter-gathered from CVT 56 using a list ofCVT 56 addresses. For instance, if the most significant bit (MSB) of thedescriptor indicates that the message is to be constructed from data inthe A429 queues 40, the descriptor may contain the base address(HOLpointer) and length of a UDP/IP/MAC header that is to be directlyread from the parametric message table 58 and placed into a messageconstruction queue 40 followed by data from the A429 queue or queues.

Conversely, if the MSB of the parametric message descriptor indicatesthat a frame is to be constructed from data in CVT 56, then theHOLpointer is the base address in CVT 56 of an ordered and contiguouslist of parametric message table 58 and CVT 56 address descriptors thatare to be used in the construction of a message. In this example, thelength field indicates the length of that list of address descriptors.The PMC 31 uses these address descriptors to gather selected CVT 56 datavalues. During construction, the list of address descriptors is firstread from the parametric message table 58. The address descriptors arethen used to construct the header of a message by reading from theparametric message table 58 and the payload of the message by readingfrom selected locations of the CVT 56 and/or the A429 output queues.

A complete data frame or “message” consists of a header, a list ofparameter values and a trailer. Each data frame header field and eachparameter value are stored in fixed, but non-contiguous locations of theCDS 28, as described above. Therefore, each data frame to be constructedmust include an ordered list of addresses that will be used to readthese scattered values out of CVT 56. To keep the PMS 30 memory small,the lists of address descriptors may themselves be maintained in astatic area of memory within the CDS 28, for example, the parametricmessage table 58 of the CVT 56.

The parametric message descriptor supplied by the PMS 30 to PMC 31 mayinclude, for example, an 18-bit Head of List Pointer (HOLpointer),Length of the List of addresses in 32-bit words, and a field reservedfor control bits. In this example, the HOLpointer may be left-shiftedand appended with zeros so that each address list starts only on a64-byte boundary. The ‘S’ control bit may also indicate whether or notthe descriptor is for an A664p7 message. If the descriptor is for anA664p7 message, an EflowID field in the descriptor may be used to trackA664p7 sequence numbers. It is additionally envisioned that a parametricmessage descriptor MSB value of zero may reference a list of addresseswhich indirectly reference data locations that are to be written into amessage. These addresses may, for instance, be contained within 64-bitlocations within CVT 56, along with byte select and control informationwhich indicates how the referenced data location is to be packed intothe message. If present, the control field may contain codes to indicateLSB or MSB alignment, big endian, little endian, or munged big endianformat, etc. Additional control field contents and effects areenvisioned.

If the message being constructed is an A664p7 message, the PMC 31 mayuse a field (EflowID) in the message descriptor received from PMS 30 toaccess that VL's Sequence Number (SN). The SN byte may be incrementedaccording to the rules described in A664p7 and placed as the last byteof the message payload constructed by PMC 31. Once the message frame iscomplete, it is transferred into a dedicated loop-back port 86, whichcomputes a CRC, such as a CRC-32, and transfers the frame back into thecommon ingress interface 22 of the ADS 18 in a loop-back fashion.

There may be multiple reasons for sending the constructed message backto the common ingress interface 22 of the ADS 18 prior to transfer to asubscriber unit 32. The principal reason is safety. Even thoughconstruction of each parametric message frame is strictly scheduled, itis envisioned an A664p7 frame must be policed by separate policer 27logic to circumvent vulnerability to a single failure. This is thereason for requiring the policing function of the ingress port scheduler24 in an A664p7 switch, even though the subscriber units 32 may alreadyperform traffic shaping. Within the ADS 18, the policer 27 is segregatedfrom the PMS 30 (and hence the PMC 31) to satisfy this requirement.

A second reason for looping back constructed message may be that itavoids duplication of the DMD function. The loop-back port 86 is notperforming significant operations on the message, and thus, may not belimited by operational delays. Consequently, the operational data rateof the loop-back port 86 may be at, for instance, gigabit rates. Theresulting impact on loop-back latency can be made negligible by, forexample, distributing the frame's descriptor to a high priorityper-egress-port descriptor queue 43 and programming the rules-basedscheduler 76 appropriately. It is envisioned a single loop-back port 86to loopback PMC 31 data may be sufficient to support transmission of,for example, more than 100 messages, each with an average length of 512bytes, within less than 500 microseconds. However, additional loop-backports 86 can be configured in the ADS 18 and dedicated to the PMC 31generated messages.

ARINC 429 Data Path

ARINC 429 data words arrive on physical ingress ports 42 numberedsixteen to forty-eight. The Time of Arrival Recorder 50 indicates whichingress port's 42 word should be serviced next. Next, the ingress portscheduler 24 parses the data frame to identify the port of arrival (PoA)and the A429 8-bit tag, and supply each to the DLT 26, which determineswhether the word is to be stored in CVT 56 (and/or any circular buffers54) and which of the A429 egress ports 66 are to receive a copy of theword. The PMS 30 supplies a parametric message descriptor to the PMC 31function to construct an Ethernet or A664p7 message.

The A429 words that are not part of a multiword message can also bestored in the CVT 56. In this case, each word is stored with a 32-bittime tag whose LSB is 216 microseconds. In this example, the PMC 31function may take the A429 words together with other parameters in CVT56 to construct an Ethernet or A664p7 frame.

ARINC 664 part 7 Sequence Number Synchronization

It is additionally envisioned that the data communications network 16described herein may provide for A664p7 sequence number synchronizationacross multiple ADSs 18. In many avionics platforms, it may beadvantageous for the PMC 31 functions residing on different ADS 18instances to synchronously distribute A664p7 data frames with identicalcontent. This is tantamount to a virtualization of a dual end system LRUbut with the two virtual end systems residing on different servers andcircuit boards. This A664p7 sequence number synchronization may beaccomplished using a message exchange protocol that verifies that timesynchronization has been achieved, provides for a message between ADSs18 which contains the value of sequence numbers for all EflowIDs, andprovides for a message which indicates a reset of the sequence numbersto zero upon a designated future time threshold, for instance, when adiscrepancy in sequence numbers becomes too great.

Processor Array

The ADS 18 may also provide one or more processors 78, or a distributedprocessor array 78. As shown, each processor 78 includes its own virtualingress and virtual egress port 72 connected to the switching function,and appearing as, for example, an Ethernet port. The processors 78 mayoperate using a single execution thread or multiple execution threadsfor performing calculations of messages supplied that processor 78. Thefunction that is performed on a supplied message is driven by theinformation in the header of the message. The processor array isconfigured to serve the ADS 18 as a centralized virtual RIU (VRIU). Forexample, the VRIU can perform engineering units conversion from rawsensor data, compute derived parameters, and/or construct a custommessage for a remote application by processing the raw data. Thescheduling of custom messages minimizes system latencies and enablessynchronization of distributed processing.

One example of applicable processor 78 may include a single chipmicroprocessor with 10/100 Ethernet interfaces specifically designed forcritical mission applications for avionics systems. Another example ofan applicable processor 78 may be a general purpose microprocessor.Additionally, the microprocessors may support dual-lockstep CPUs withECC in both their cache and internal memories, which include an internalFLASH memory for non-volatile storage. The aforementioned processors 78may be used to enable a scalable processing architecture for the ADS 18.It is additionally envisioned that such processors 78 may be used incombination with the aforementioned PMS 30 and PMC 31 functions toprovide optimized parallel processing for virtually any application thatcan be decomposed into a collection of serial or parallel processingthreads.

As described herein, the PMS 30 may harvest, format and distribute amessage when a descriptor is sent to the PMC 31 to construct a message.An example of how the PMS 30 scheduling of messages can be used tosynchronize operation of distributed processors is as follows: A threadrunning on a processor 78 will activate only upon receiving a custommessage which invokes it. The output of a thread running on a processor78 may be a parametric message that may be received by a virtual ingressport 46 at the common ingress interface 22, scheduled by the ingressport scheduler 24, and stored in the CVT 56. Moreover, the PMS 30 mayiterate through the processors 78 a second time by harvesting,formatting and distributing a message based on the processed parametricmessage (as described above) to another processor 78 for processing.This process may repeat until a desired final result is achieved. Thus,the processing capabilities of general purpose processors may becooperatively pipelined to form an optimized, distributedmultiprocessing system. If each thread has a known maximum execution orprocessing time, the PMS 30 and PMC 31 functions may further optimizethe utilization of the processors 78 when available or necessary.

Another detailed example may further illustrate the data flow for threeparametric messages. The PMS 30, for instance, harvests a first set ofparameters from the CVT 56 and constructs a first message for a firstprocessor. The PMS 30 may also harvest a second set of parameters andconstruct a second message for a second processor. The first and secondprocessors execute their different message-triggered programs inparallel and, through the ingress data path, the processed results arewritten into the CVT 56. The PMS 30 may subsequently construct a thirdmessage from the first and second processed results, and provide thethird message for additional processing to either the first, second, ora third processor, and so on. Additionally, in this example, while thefirst and second processors are concurrently processing the first andsecond messages, the PMS 30 may construct two additional parametricmessages, for example, a fourth and a fifth message for processing inthe first and second processors. This processing can be strictlypipelined so that the processors 78 are capable of parallel executionwith very little idle time.

The selection of which task (or thread) a given processor 78 runs isdetermined by the header of the message it receives from the PMS 30 andthe data processed by that task is contained in the body of the message.There is no need for task switching based on an interrupt from a timertick because, a timer tick based interrupt mechanism can effectively beachieved since the generation of PMS 30 messages adhere to a strict timeschedule, as described above. Thus, a timer tick may be mimicked byenabling messages from the PMS 30 to interrupt the processor. Mappingthis PMS-message-interrupt-driven processing onto processors 78 may befurther facilitated by the availability of private RAM for eachprocessor 78 to retain state and resume its operation following themessage-driven interrupt. This interrupt-driven processing capabilitymay be useful for interrupt driven processing where a given processingthread cannot run to completion before a task switch or event-driveninterrupt must occur. If message driven interrupts are enabled, it mayalso be possible for a message arriving from an external source due tosome asynchronous event, such as an RIU 20, to bypass the CVT 56altogether and be sent through the switching function of the ADS 18(via, for example, one of the circular buffers 54) directly to aselected processor 78.

Interworking

Interworking may be designed to perform conversion from one protocol toanother, for example, as determined by different ingress or egressphysical interfaces 44, 68. One key interworking function is a VirtualEnd System (VES) 82, which serves as, for example, an A664p7 interfacefor any LRUs connected to the ADS 18, enabling them to support a simpleEthernet interface to the ADS 18 and use, for example, jumbo Ethernetframes to transport COM port data to the VES 82. The VES 82 may supporta number of legacy, current, and/or future logical formats andprotocols.

The embodiments disclosed herein provide an avionics data server for anavionics data communications network with coordinated operation. Oneadvantage that may be realized in the above embodiments is that theabove described embodiments operate with an efficient collection ofaircraft data, just-in-time processing, precise scheduling, anddistribution of that data to coordinated servers, systems, subscriberunits, and displays. Additionally, the above described embodimentsprovide synchronized processing among distributed processors while onlyrequiring the data servers be time synchronized. Due to the efficientoperations of the avionics data servers described above, inefficienciesof excessive network and computational bandwidth due to uncoordinatednetwork utilization may be minimized, resulting in increased bandwidthefficiency and lower power requirements. Furthermore, due to theincreased efficiency and lower power requirements, a smaller circuitpackage may be designed due to a lower thermal profile, resulting insuperior space and size advantages. When designing aircraft components,important factors to address are size, power requirements, andreliability. Reduced size, power requirements, and reliability correlateto competitive advantages during flight.

Another advantage of the above described embodiments is that theutilization of multiple circular buffers in the CDS, segregated byegress port speed, allows for increased data efficiency by overwritingdata at an appropriate rate such that, for example, frames destined fora slow egress port are not overwritten by fast-arriving frames for afast egress port. This utilization allows for the highest probabilitythat the data frames will be consumed prior to being overwritten.Additionally, the utilization of the circular buffers eliminates theneed for determining a method of keeping track of free or unused memoryblocks. The oldest data is always overwritten using the circular buffer,providing fast and uncomplicated operation.

Yet another advantage of the above embodiments is that the abovedescribed embodiments significantly limits or eliminates the need forcurrent or legacy end systems and switches, such as the A664p7 system.Additionally, the above described embodiments provide for mirroring ofdata across multiple servers or storage devices, providing redundancymeasures in the event of a failure. Yet another advantage of the abovedescribed embodiments is that the described network provides forredundant verification of processing tasks, by allowing multipleprocessors, or multiple servers to perform the same calculations, whichmay be compared against each other.

In yet another advantage of the above described embodiments, therule-based scheduler provides for arbitration of servicing data andegress ports based on one or more fullness indicators, allowingservicing priorities to be established. The servicing priorities allowfor adaptive, yet deterministic operation of the egress schedulingfunctions without wasting unutilized servicing schedules.

To the extent not already described, the different features andstructures of the various embodiments may be used in combination witheach other as desired. That one feature may not be illustrated in all ofthe embodiments is not meant to be construed that it may not be, but isdone for brevity of description. Thus, the various features of thedifferent embodiments may be mixed and matched as desired to form newembodiments, whether or not the new embodiments are expressly described.All combinations or permutations of features described herein arecovered by this disclosure.

This written description uses examples to disclose the invention,including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in theart to practice the invention, including making and using any devices orsystems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope ofthe invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examplesthat occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intendedto be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elementsthat do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if theyinclude equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differencesfrom the literal languages of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of providing current operation data fora plurality of data generating components connected to a datacommunications network of an aircraft and sending at least one dataframe having an identifier and corresponding raw data, the methodcomprising: a) generating a current value table (CVT) in memoryconnected to the communications network, by reserving a predeterminedfirst portion of the memory defining a memory address allocation for aset of identifiers and corresponding raw data, and generating at leasttwo circular buffers in the memory by reserving second portion ofmemory, different from the first portion of the memory; b) receiving adata frame over the network from at least one of the data generatingcomponents; c) parsing the received data frame into the identifier andcorresponding raw data; d) determining, by way of a software look uptable, if the parsed identifier corresponds to the reserved memoryaddress allocation; e) when the parsed identifier corresponds to thereserved memory address allocation, updating the determined reservedmemory address of the CVT with the parsed raw data by writing the parsedraw data to the reserved memory address, or, when the parsed identifierdoes not correspond to the reserved memory address allocation,determining which one of the at least two circular buffers to updatebased on the available data transmission rate of at least one of theport of destination, a UDP destination address, an IP destinationaddress, or a MAC destination address, and updating the one of the atleast two circular buffers with the parsed raw data by writing theparsed raw data to the one of the at least two circular buffers; and f)repeating a)-f) for subsequent data frames for the data generatingcomponents whereby the CVT maintains the most up-to-date data.
 2. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the operational data is derived from the rawdata.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein the operational data iscalculated from the raw data.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the rawdata is operational data.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the updatingthe one of the at least two circular buffers overwrites the oldest datain the one of the at least two circular buffers with the parsed rawdata.
 6. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining which oneof the at least two circular buffers to update is based on a parsedidentifier comprising at least one of a port of arrival, port ofdestination, UDP address, IP address, MAC address, or fragment offset.7. The method of claim 6 wherein the determining which one of the atleast two circular buffers to update is based on storing all raw data ofa fragmented message on a single circular buffer.
 8. The method of claim1 wherein the determining if the parsed identifier corresponds to thereserved memory addresses allocation is based on a parsed identifiercomprising at least one of a port of arrival, port of destination, UDPaddress, IP address, or MAC address.
 9. The method of claim 1 whereinthe CVT memory address allocation for each identifier and correspondingraw data is static.
 10. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining ifthe parsed identifier corresponds to the reserved memory addressallocation further comprises determining if the received raw data isnewer than the raw data in the reserved memory address.
 11. The methodof claim 10 wherein the determining if the received raw data is newercomprises comparing a time stamp of the received data frame to a timestamp of the data frame in the reserved memory address.
 12. The methodof claim 1 wherein the data frame is parsed by at least one of anexecutable program running on a general purpose computer on the datacommunications network, an executable program running on a specializedpurpose computer of the data communications network, or a specializedlogic circuit on the data communications network.